Alicia Vikander is an Academy Award-winning actress and producer who is currently starring as Katherine Parr in the historical drama Firebrand, also starring Jude Law, Eddie Marsan and Sam Riley. She has collaborated with some of the industry’s most respected filmmakers on a diverse range of roles from projects such as Testament of Youth, Jason Bourne, Ex Machina, Anna Karenina, The Light Between Oceans, A Royal Affair, The Green Knight and The Danish Girl, which resulted in her winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as a host of other awards including a SAG Award and Critics Choice Award. She also garnered multiple nominations including Golden Globe and BAFTA, both of which she was nominated in two categories, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl and Ex Machina, respectively. In 2022, she starred in the A24/HBO co-production, Irma Vep, written and directed by filmmaker Olivier Assayas and based on his own cult film of the same title. (Photo by Dick Thomas Johnson, via Flickr.)
Three Great Things is Talkhouse’s series in which artists tell us about three things they absolutely love. To mark the current release of the new historical drama Firebrand, starring Alicia Vikander, Jude Law, Eddie Marsan and Sam Riley, Oscar-winning actress Vikander shared some of the things that bring her the most joy in life. — N.D.
Designing Spaces
One of my biggest hobbies is creating spaces. I love it. It started at a young age, when I was making doll houses; I figured out later that my biggest joy in life is to build furniture, create things for a house, or spend hours looking for antiques.
Playing with doll houses was something I did with my mom and I have beautiful memories of us doing that together, the craftsmanship of that. When I was a teenager, I bought architectural magazines instead of fashion magazines and would watch lots of design programs on TV. But it was not until a few years back, when I went home to my mom’s house, that I connected the dots and realized I’d been designing spaces since the age of five.
The first big space I worked on was my own room, when I moved away from home. It was in a rented place with very strict limitations. I didn’t have any money, so it was more about rearranging the furniture, trying to find the best arrangement, and then buying fabrics that could change the look of the place, finding pieces to add to it and maybe doing a paint job. My next big project was my first flat, because it was extremely rundown. I never thought I was going to own my own place, so I think that was when I really realized that I loved doing this. And that I was good at it.
Since then, I’ve continued that journey and found a lot of inspiration from looking at endless images of design work that people have done, finding bits and pieces for the dream house in my head. I recently finished work on my husband’s and my main house, which took about five years. I did a lot of detailed work on that and I was part of the whole renovation, which was slowed down a lot by the pandemic. I’ve become obsessive, which is so tough. It gets stressful! And then when a project is done after five years, I say, What’s next? I can’t help myself. I’m already thinking about whatever the next thing is. It’s a bit like with the films I make, or anything I’m passionate about. It never ends.
Playing Games with Friends
I love to play games with my friends. I always carry a pack of cards with me or have five dice in my bag. It’s an analog thing to do that I champion, especially in the world we live in right now.
I like to cook, too, so sometimes I throw poker dinner parties. They start in the early afternoon and I cook while everyone’s there, and at a certain time we sit down and start playing. It’s a €20 buy-in, so it’s just a friendly game. During the pandemic, I found an app where my friends and I were able to hang out online and play poker together, but I much prefer doing it in person.
I started organizing game nights for me and my girlfriends in my early 20s. We were traveling together and seeing each other a lot, and we always carried games with us. (We were also 20-year-olds who did a lot of crosswords, which is unusual for that age.) And when we sat down to play games, it was friendly, but we all tried to win. I think that’s part of the fun.
People have told me I’m very good at matching friends. I’m proud that after my wedding, there were three holidays that happened with people that I had put together deliberately. And they went without me, so are clearly now friends in their own right! Those things really excite me. Because of the amount of time I was away traveling for work from quite early in my career, I was afraid of losing a lot of these relationships. So I’ve always cherished my friendships, and I really put a lot of effort into nourishing them whenever I can see my friends. I want to invite people for a fun little event, a chance for everyone to meet up. And, of course, you can eat and drink, but there’s always other, more creative ways to hang out with the people I love.
2001: A Space Odyssey
As an actor, I’m often asked, What’s your favorite film? And I think it’s such a hard question.
When I was about 14, I watched, 2001: A Space Odyssey; it was the most incredible thing I had seen, and it had a huge impact on me. But because I saw it so young, at an age when I still had that superpower where reality can morph into something even bigger and more fantastical, for decades I didn’t dare watch it again. I was worried I’d lose the magic of that first viewing. But I was also never able to say it was my favorite film, because all I had was the memory of me watching it.
My husband and I have a country house in France and last year – after Firebrand premiered at Cannes – I was there with my brother, who’s 13 years younger than me. He’s very sweet and will proudly tell me, Oh, I’ve seen this film. It’s a classic. He recommends films to me and I will say, No, yeah, I’ve seen that one. But then I found out he hadn’t seen 2001 and hadn’t even heard of it. I said, Oh my God, we should watch it! So we went downstairs, where we have a small screening room with amazing sound and which you can make completely dark. When we watched it, I had the same experience again: it absolutely blew my mind. I was very impressed that it worked on me just as well, 20 years later. The craftsmanship is just amazing; I almost can’t believe that it was made in the 60s. And I can now, with confidence, say that it’s my favorite film.
